Cover of a ledger/scrapbook from the Cumberland County Public Library, 1873-1875

A trio of nineteenth-century business ledgers from the Cumberland County Public Library are now online at DigitalNC. The ledgers date from the 1830s, the 1850s, and the 1870s, respectively, and can help teach us more about the daily lives of North Carolinians during the nineteenth century. Particularly interesting is the first ledger, which dates from 1832-1834 and documents the business dealings of the merchants Womack and Goodwin in Pittsboro. Operating as general merchants, the firm served the local community with wares ranging from lace, to nails, to sugar, and everything in between.

Page From the Womack and Goodwin Business Ledger, 1832

The second ledger dates from 1852 to 1854 and documents the transactions of an unidentified merchant who conducted business in Cumberland County, Randolph County, and elsewhere. It includes transactions with several prominent Randolph County personalities, including Isaac Holt Faust (1818-1864), a wealthy slaveholder and estate owner, and Pinckney Davenport II (1811-1867), a local moonshine distiller. A selection of papers from the family of Foust’s daughter can be found in the Harris and Foust Family Papers, part of the Southern Historical collection at UNC’s Wilson Library.

Isaac Holt Foust Account in the 1852-1856 Ledger

The third ledger includes more account information, attributable either to one JB Hockaday or one NA Stedman Jr. of Fayetteville, and dates from 1873-1875. The first 21 pages of this ledge are pasted over with unidentified drawings and newspaper clippings, mainly consisting of prose and poetry.

For more materials from the Cumberland County Public Library, please visit their website or their contributor page here at DigitalNC.

A single issue of The Casket, the student literary magazine of the Chowan Female Collegiate Institute (later Chowan University) is now online at DigitalNC. The issue, which dates from March 1854, is an interesting window into the minds of young, educated women during the mid-Nineteenth Century.

The writings within explore topics like religion and the home, but are especially remarkable for supporting views that seem decidedly modern about women. For example, a piece written by one E. Lee attacks the viewpoint that women are incapable of mathematical thinking and closes with the following proclamation: “Henceforth, then, let it be acknowledged not only that Woman has a fibre more in the heart than man, but that she has also as many cells in the brain” (page 6). Another column by the same author criticizes the existing historical and literary canon for ignoring the achievements of women in both fact and fiction. “The world’s history, from the most remote period, furnishes a record of the noble deeds and attainments of man [emphasis in original]…,” she writes, then asking, “But whither shall we look for an account of woman’s deeds? As a sword in its sheath, they are concealed” (page 7-8).

100 issues of the Carolina Union Farmer are now online at DigitalNC. The recently digitized issues form a nearly complete representation of the weekly paper’s publication between July 1911 and May 1913. Published by the North Carolina Farmer’s Union, the paper provides unique insights into the Labor Movement as it manifested itself in the South during the early twentieth century.

Cosmetics ad in the August 22, 1912 issue

Wool-buyers ad in the August 14, 1912 issue

The issues deal heavily with economics, politics, religion, and topics of agrarian interest, all seen through a distinctly Progressive-Era lens. Many articles urge their audiences to organize against large corporate farming interests and provide instruction as to how the average farmer might go about doing so. Also included are pages of classified and commercial ads, op-eds, cultural submissions such as poetry and prose, and notifications for events and programs hosted by the Farmer’s Union. Many of the issues published in the second half of 1912 feature columns related to the 1912 national and state elections, with political advertisements and endorsements occupying several pages.

Political ad in the September 26, 1912 issue

These issues of The Carolina Union Farmer are held by UNC Libraries. Click here to learn more about the other UNC materials hosted online at DigitalNC.

Over 90 issues spanning nearly the entire run of Lambda, UNC Chapel Hill‘s LGBQT student newspaper, are now online at DigitalNC. Publication of Lambda started in 1976 and ran until at least 2013. The paper began as simple newsletter for the UNC gay community, but later appeared in a number of formats, from an “activist newspaper” (Lambda January 1993), to a “LGBTIQ-Affirming Magazine” (Lambda Spring 2004), and finally to an online blog.

The issues now online constitute a valuable resource for those interested in LGBQT history at UNC Chapel Hill, in the greater Triangle area, and in the United States as a whole. Most of the writing within deals with topics like sexuality, identity, and politics at all of these levels. Many notable events, such as the deadly anti-gay assaults at Little River in Durham in April 1981, as well as the national debates around the issue of same-sex marriage in the early- to mid-2000s, are covered in detail.

Front Page of Lambda, Spring 2004

In browsing the paper’s many issues, one gets a distinct sense of the scope of the LGBQT movement throughout its history as well as the identities involved. This is exemplified by the progression of organizations that sponsored the paper over the years. Beginning with the Carolina Gay Association in 1976, the paper later became the voice of the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association; the Carolina Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians and Allies for Diversity (B-GLAD); The Queer Network for Change; and finally the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transsexual Student Association.

The newly digitized issues of Lambda are another addition to the already considerable amount of UNC Chapel Hill materials currently hosted at DigitalNC. For more information about Lambda and the various LGBQT student associations that form an important part of UNC history, visit The Carolina Story and its exhibit on UNC student organizations.

Seven issues of East Wind, a publication of UNC Chapel Hill‘s Asian Students Association, are now available online at DigitalNC. Started in 1993, the paper appeared roughly once a semester for the first several years of its run. The issues now on DigitalNC (December 1993-Spring 1998) cover a wide range of topics relevant to the Asian-American student community at UNC. With its editorials, advertisements for upcoming events, restaurant reviews, and much more, East Wind provides a forum for both ASA members and others to promote, criticize, and discuss Asian-American culture from numerous angles. Much of the paper’s contents focus on issues of race and identity within the Asian-American community.

The newly digitized issues of East Wind are another addition to the already considerable amount of UNC Chapel Hill materials currently hosted at DigitalNC. For more information about East Wind and the Asian Students Association at UNC, visit The Carolina Story and its exhibit on UNC student organizations.

A new issue of the Goldsboro Hi News from Goldsboro High School in Wayne County is now online at DigitalNC. The issue dates from November 15, 1927 and details the regular goings-on at Goldsboro High School. It includes news about school clubs and organizations, teachers, contests, events, opinions, and much more. The issue is a valuable addition to the already substantial collection of Goldsboro Hi News issues available at DigitalNC.

A new batch of 3 scrapbooks from the Cleveland County Memorial Library are now online at DigitalNC. The scrapbooks, at least one of which was compiled by longtime Cleveland County educator, Ezra Bridges, document various aspects of life in Shelby, NC and the larger Cleveland County area during the second half of the 20th century. Most of the materials within relate to activities concerning both the public school system and the African American community in Cleveland County. The scrapbooks’ pages hold a wide range of items ranging from newspaper clippings, to correspondence, to funeral programs, to postcards, to photos, and more.

To learn more about our partner, Cleveland County Memorial Library, please visit their DigitalNC partner page or take a look at their website.

A new batch of materials documenting the history of Shaw University, a historically black liberal arts institution in Raleigh, NC, are now online and available for use at DigitalNC. The materials consist of commencement programs, annual reports, and an admissions flier from the 1890s and early 1900s as well as a program for a missionary training conference held at Shaw University in 1946. The earlier set of documents provides insights into the recruitment efforts, budgetary concerns, and graduation ceremonies of the university. Similarly, the 1946 program documents the results of a teaching partnership between the university and the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

The materials are currently held by UNC Libraries. To learn more, visit UNC’s partner page or Shaw University’s website.